


The Magic of the Wind Maiden

by bright_side_of_the_sun



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Implied previous Annette Fantine Dominic/Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert, Technical kidnapping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:07:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26048515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bright_side_of_the_sun/pseuds/bright_side_of_the_sun
Summary: Even though Annette didn't agree with her uncle's choices, she had stayed with him. But a year into the Empire's occupation of Dominic territory, she encountered Kingdom generals and was forced into a decision. Will she fight for her own beliefs, or not?
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	The Magic of the Wind Maiden

“General Fraldarius!”

Felix surged forward, slamming his shoulder into his opponent’s chest. As the other man tumbled to the dirt with a grunt, Felix brought his sword to their neck. For a second, the two men glared at each other before Ashe sighed, eyes downcast.

“I yield.”

Without so much as a smile, Felix extended his hand. Ashe grabbed it, rising to his feet. “You can’t let distractions take your mind off the battle,” Felix intoned. His heart was still pumping lightly from the exertion, but his breathing was calm and steady as he sheathed his sword.

“I know, I know,” Ashe groaned while brushing dirt off the seat of his pants before sheathing his sword. “Argh, I don’t know why I agreed to a sparring session before we broke camp. This is going to hurt the entire ride home.”

This elicited a smirk from Felix as he turned to acknowledge the approaching soldier that had called for him.

“General Fraldarius,” the soldier gasped as he finally came near enough to speak. “Colonel Ubert,” he also addressed as he made a labored bow to them both in greeting.

“Captain Vesper,” Ashe acknowledged while bowing in response.

Felix merely tilted his head.

“Is the camp ready to move out?” Ashe asked.

“No sir,” the captain panted, shaking his head. “The southern patrol from last night has disappeared. They were supposed to swap shifts this morning but they’re nowhere to be found. There are no signs of an attack, and no one has seen them since they started their shift.”

Felix and Ashe glanced at each other. They were just south of the Tailtean Plains, deep into Kingdom territory, so the likelihood of an Empire attack was low. The guards might have deserted, but Felix and Ashe knew that they couldn't simply let the matter be.

“Make sure the rest of the camp is still ready to ride out by the time the sun is fully risen,” Felix ordered. “Ashe, let’s go.”

Vesper broke away, and Felix and Ashe went to grab horses before heading south.

  


“Wasn’t this supposed to be just a routine patrol of the plains?” a voice behind Felix asked nervously as they rode out of the wheat fields where the rest of Felix’s troops were camped.

“It still is. We’re just looking for a few soldiers,” Felix said tersely. He had decided to take Brina, his company’s sole mage, with him and Ashe into the forest south of the plains. Felix had noticed the apprehension in her dark brown eyes when he asked her to join their search for some missing soldiers. She specialized in defensive magic though, and depending on what was waiting for them, she might prove useful.

Brina fell silent after that. None of them spoke any further as the horses threaded carefully through the trees, the sound of their steps softened by the dirt.

Another half an hour passed before Brina let out a soft “Wait,” causing the party to rein in their horses. “I can feel magic being cast.” She blanched slightly as she continued, “Great quantities of magic, and quite powerful.”

That was a bad sign.

“Tie the horses to the trees,” Ashe murmured. “We’ll go on foot from here.”

They moved more quickly without the horses as Brina dictated directions towards the source of magic. As they got closer, Felix started to feel a light breeze through the trees, shifting unnaturally in direction every few seconds.

“Come back here!”

They didn’t have to travel long before they heard a woman’s shouted command. Felix and Ashe dashed towards it - with Brina trailing hesitantly behind - and arrived at the edge of a clearing just in time to see a red-headed woman direct a vicious wind spell at one of three men running away from her. Goosebumps raised on Felix’s arms as the vestiges of the gale pressed against them, causing the branches above their heads to whip against each other. The man screamed as he was hit and was launched straight into a tree. He fell to the ground and did not get back up.

Seeing this, one of the other men cursed. He stopped to face the woman, drawing his sword. “Alright, that’s enough! We’re ending this!” he roared as he charged at her. The third man saw his remaining ally charge forward but hesitated, pausing just long enough for Felix to see the crest of Blaiddyd displayed on his back. _Those are our guys._

As Felix quickly tried to formulate a plan, he heard Brina gasp. The moment the soldier had turned to face the red-headed mage, she had stopped chasing and dropped into a fighting stance, her hands balanced in front of her. Once he started charging, she whipped her right hand back. She quickly pushed it forward again, and a torrential blast of wind charged through the air. Her hair whipped around her face and weeds and dirt went flying as the tempest hit the attacking soldier and slammed him into the soldier who had hesitated. The two crumpled in a tangle of limbs, groaning. The girl wore a satisfied smile on her face as the wind died down. Felix assessed her quickly; she bore no pack or weapon, and she couldn’t have been hiding anything larger than a knife within the simple white dress she was wearing.

“Wait…” Ashe’s voice said beside him. “Wait I know- Annette!”

Ashe burst from their hiding spot in the trees and yelled out a name before Felix could pull him back. Felix cursed, hissed at Brina to stay hidden, and jumped out behind Ashe while he pulled out his weapon.

The mage - Annette - whipped around, tense and ready to continue fighting, but her jaw dropped as soon she saw the silver-haired man with his hands raised placatingly.

“Ashe!” A grin split her face but immediately disappeared once she saw Felix approach, hands not in the air, but rather wrapped around the hilt of a sword.

“No, no it’s okay! It’s okay,” Ashe calmed with his hands out, one towards Felix and one towards the girl - Annette.

“You know this girl?” Felix growled, not dropping his sword and moving up next to Ashe. He assessed her more thoroughly as he stepped forward. She was much smaller than she had seemed from a distance, couldn’t be any taller than five feet, looked to be in her early twenties -- approximately the same age as Ashe and him. The second look also confirmed no further weapons or belongings. Her bright red hair fell to just below her shoulders, and her eyes were darting between him and Ashe, wide with caution and curiosity. He estimated Annette was about fifteen feet away; he was hoping he could cross that distance before she could cast a spell.

“She won’t hurt us. She helped me get… get to you guys. A year ago, if you remember.” Ashe moved one arm to block Felix - ignoring Felix's annoyed glare - and kept his other hand held out to calm Annette.

Felix did remember. Ashe was a relatively recent addition to the Kingdom army. He had surrendered himself at the entrance to the city of Fhirdiad a year ago, claiming to have defected from the Empire-occupied Gaspard territory. He had, of course, immediately been bound and brought before the Kingdom army commander and the king himself, Dimitri. Whatever had happened in that meeting though, had apparently been enough to convince them to let Ashe into the army as a soldier. He was placed into Ingrid’s battalion, and slowly earned everyone's trust throughout the year. He had only recently been promoted and switched into Felix’s own battalion. Felix had found the man to be perhaps a little naive, but dedicated to the Kingdom’s cause and suspiciously skilled with a lockpick.

“If she helped you reach us, why the _hell_ is she fighting our men?”

“I fight anyone who steals from my territory,” the girl snapped, focusing her attention on him now.

Felix glanced at the three soldiers still on the ground. He had not previously noticed, but one of them had dropped a bag during the battle, and he could see gold coins and jewelry spilling out.

Felix shifted his gaze back to Annette. “And what territory is that?” He didn’t miss as Ashe and Annette both stiffened, and Annette looked away.

“Dominic,” she whispered, and Felix’s grip on his sword tightened.

“The same Dominic territory that declared fealty to Cornelia? Who betrayed the Kingdom and in turn declared fealty to the Empire?”

Annette returned her gaze to Felix and glared at him, fists balled at her sides, chin raised.

Felix continued. “So you attacked Kingdom men. And your family ceded to the Empire. But for some reason, you also helped Ashe escape from them.”

She spoke with a straight face, but her eyes contained poorly-concealed turmoil. “Uncle did what he had to do to protect Mother and I. But… Father was a knight of the Kingdom. And I” — she swallowed — “I am loyal to the Kingdom.”

Her mask broke and fear, concern, and oddly, relief, seemed to cross her face. In the procession of emotions he could sense tearing through her, the one thing that he did not sense was doubt. They had just met and her actions in even just the last hour were highly suspect to say the least, yet he found himself convinced of her words. Perhaps it was because Ashe seemed to know and trust her. Perhaps it was the way she had said father, and how the phrase had swelled with emotion in a way that the rest of her statement had not. Perhaps it was how her eyes, the hue of the cloudy skies that indicated the first snowfall every year, had not left his own. Despite all of his logical senses screaming at him to reject her words, somehow he was convinced of her sincerity.

But Felix was never one to ignore his senses.

He sheathed his sword with a scowl. “I believe you.” As he spoke, some of the tension left the girl’s posture, and Ashe brought his arms down. Neither of them noticed that Felix had signaled behind his back, towards the edge of the clearing, as he had put away his sword. “So you’ll be coming with us.”

Annette’s eyes widened but she spun around too late. The last thing she saw was the hand of Brina, who had warped behind Annette.

“Sleep”, Brina whispered as she cast her spell.

Felix stepped forward and caught Annette before she hit the ground.

  


They moved quickly and methodically after that. Ashe had shouted in alarm when Annette fell, but Felix ignored him and started binding Annette’s wrists closely together. Ashe tried to object, but Felix snapped “She took down three of our soldiers single-handedly after tracking them all night, don’t be a fool.”

Ashe didn’t bother to hide his displeasure, but Felix had to think of their safety first and foremost. He wasn’t going to leave a threat behind, and the Commander was expecting them to be back early the next day. Felix directed Ashe to carry Annette back to the horses, and he and Brina set to rouse the soldiers, all three of which were still alive. He bound their hands as well. They reunited with Ashe and Annette, and the group made their way back to the camp with Annette draped over Ashe’s horse and Ashe leading it by the reins. The pilfering soldiers walked behind and despite their attempts, could not trick Felix into believing their innocence. They howled and cursed at him after, but once they reached the camp they had no more words left. They had spent half the night stealing from territories further south, the other half of the night trying to escape Annette, and could do nothing more than walk with their heads down.

Vesper had done well to make sure everyone there was ready to clear out, and the troop was able to start the journey back to Fhirdiad shortly after Felix and the rest got back.

Initially Felix rode at the back of the procession with the disgraced soldiers, leaving Ashe to lead everyone at the front. After travelling for a few hours though, Felix rode to the head of the procession to Ashe, dismounted, and transferred Annette onto his own horse. “Can’t have you walking all day,” he muttered.

“We shouldn’t have taken her.”

Felix glanced up at Ashe from across his own horse, not missing that this was the first that Ashe had talked to him since leaving the clearing. Felix refocused his attention on the road in front. “A mage like her doesn’t make it through a war without getting drafted. If she’s not in Cornelia’s army yet, she would have been soon whether she wanted to be or not.”

“You didn’t have to knock her out then,” Ashe flashed, “or tie her hands.”

“I wasn’t going to take that risk, Ashe,” Felix shook his head. “If anything happens to us or our men, it’s on me. Our forces are sparse enough as it is, and she had just eliminated three of them.”

“She didn’t kill them,” Ashe muttered, but judging by the way he averted his eyes, he knew Felix was right.

Anything else that Ashe was about to say was interrupted by a groan emanating from Annette. Before either of them could react, Annette’s head snapped up and she yelled and struggled in the saddle. Her efforts led to her falling to the ground onto her back, landing with a thud and another groan. Felix whistled for the company to halt, and Ashe immediately jumped down to Annette and sat her up with his hands on her shoulders.

“Annette. Annette, it’s Ashe. It’s me.”

“Ashe?” she said blearily. She made to move her hands towards him, but froze once she realized they were restricted. "Ashe, why are my hands tied? What’s happening?” She looked around. “Where are we?” and with each question, Felix could hear her panic rising.

“Hey. _Hey._ Annette, look at me,” Ashe called reassuringly, cupping a hand to her face and turning it towards him. “You’re okay, you’re safe. You’re coming with us back to Fhirdhad, just like we talked about before. Remember?” Ashe had a gentle smile on his face as Annette’s lip trembled, and he wiped away a tear with his thumb. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

“We’re not going to hurt you as long as you don’t hurt us,” Felix said levelly. Annette whirled around but squinted as the sun fell into her eyes. As she attempted to shield her face with her hands, Felix squatted down beside her and hooked his finger into her bonds, causing Annette to yelp as she almost fell forward. “This,” he gestured with a shake, “is just so you don’t knock out more of my men.”

Her eyes filled with anger. “They were stealing-”

“And they’ll be punished,” Felix interrupted, unhooking his finger and letting her hands fall as he stood back up. “You’ll be fine, as long as you cooperate.”

Ashe helped Annette to her feet with a murmur. Annette looked between him and Felix and sighed. “Fine, I won’t run. Can you untie my hands now?”

“No.” Two sets of eyes glared at Felix.

“ _Fine_ ,” Annette snapped. “But I’m going to ride normally.”

“Fine.” Felix signaled for a spare horse to be brought. Ashe helped her up, Felix tied the horse behind his own, and they rode on.

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be part of a longer story, but I lost steam a couple of chapters in. Posting what I have, might be inspired to write more in the future!


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